Oracle Officially Launches Java SE 7 for OS X

[Watabou]

Oh yeah finally!

Now I don't have to correct my group members' Java 7 syntax to get it to run on my mac. I need Java for my college work so this is actually useful for me.

 

[bad03xtreme]

I'm guessing you don't play minecraft 😀

No, I enjoy the company of women... 😛

 

[faroZ06]

It takes time to develop code. Apple wasn't number 1 on Oracle's list for implementing the JVM, or they didn't have enough Apple OS X developers.

Mac OS was low on the list? Did all of the cellphones and washing machines that have Java also stay at SE 6?

----------

No, I enjoy the company of women... 😛

Actually, I think more girls play Minecraft than any other video game that boys would actually play.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Given how often a java update breaks my net banking service, I think I'll wait it out a bit.. Especially since this release if probably pretty different to what APple usually puts out. It is bound for breaking compatibility in weird places.

 

[mactumors]

So... Apple will release this via Software Update soon?

 

[ConCat]

So... Apple will release this via Software Update soon?

No. Apple is no longer updating Java on the Mac. I assume they'll try to play nice with Oracle for the foreseeable future, but other than that, we can't expect anything to come out of Software Update.

 

[parseckadet]

Why was Apple making their own Java in the first place? The whole point of Java was "compile once for every device", yet Java 7 was not available on Mac OS. This was rarely a problem, but it was extremely annoying when it was.

Apple was doing it because back in 1998 or whatever they couldn't convince Sun that they were important enough to devote resources to. Sun pretty much told them that if they wanted java to work on OS X that they would have to do it themselves. So they did, but they had to wait until a particular version of Java was released before they could begin working on their third-party VM.

As time went on the two companies headed in opposite directions. Apple skyrocketed to the top, and they got distracted by all the other projects they were doing, causing their updates of the JVM to fall further behind Sun's releases. Sun tanked and didn't have the resources needed to take over the production of the JVM from Apple.

Now that Sun has been bought by Oracle they suddenly do have the resources to do it themselves, and you're seeing the transition come to fruition today. I honestly think Apple would have always preferred to let Sun produce the JVM themselves, but Sun was never interested nor had the resources.

 

[Undecided]

What still uses Java?

 

[ConCat]

What still uses Java?

It's actually more popular in embedded systems rather than computers these days. The ability to be able to swap CPU architectures almost at a whim makes Java very cost-effective. I have a blu-ray player that runs off of pure Java.

 

[haravikk]

Why was Apple making their own Java in the first place?

Probably to make sure OS X could support Java apps as soon as possible (was their Java version in OS X.0? I don't remember); back when OS X was in its infancy Java was more common, and I expect it helped a lot of companies in their transition to OS X since they could implement some, or all, of their app in Java for several platforms.

Basically I think Apple just went all out to try and make sure developers didn't have many excuses not to start developing for OS X in some form or another.

The real question is why they didn't hand over responsibility to Sun/Oracle sooner, since Java apps are so much less common.

Personally I use Java for OpenFire (free Jabber server with support for transports, e.g - MSN, via plugins) and GlimmerBlocker (ad-blocking proxy server). Not super common apps, though GlimmerBlocker is good for everyone since it works with any browser.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Apple announced in October 2010 that it was discontinuing its support for Java, with Steve Jobs noting that having Apple responsible for updates generally resulted in Java for OS X being one version behind Java for other platforms. Jobs noted that that "may not be the best way to do it", and his belief was proven true earlier this year after the Flashback malware was able to infect 600,000 Macs by taking advantage of a Java vulnerability that had already been patched in most versions of Java but not yet addressed by Apple.

Apples main error regarding the Java was, that they enabled the Java web-browser plugin per default. If you visit 10000 sites, only one uses or needs Java, and this site is probably a malware-site.

 

[ScottishDuck]

Just tried running minecraft as a test, didn't work.

 

[slb]

Why was Apple making their own Java in the first place?

Java was once an official alternative to Cocoa for OS X development.

 

[Stephen123]

This Oracle updater is Lion only. No Snow Leopard.

 

[9982225]

Virtually useless for any ordinary end-user, but welcome news anyway.

Strange, BRLawyer is negative about something.

This is very good news for the "ordinary end-user" as this will, as the article states, continue to improve the speed of updates. If they result in needing to personally download or Apple just pipes these updates into Software Update this is VERY good news.

 

[arkmannj]

Great News

Great News for me!

I wish they could distribute Java through the MAS though, thatway it wouldn't need (another/seporate) background service checking for updates.

 

[hugodrax]

What still uses Java?

Lots of Trading software.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Minecraft feels snappier. 🙄

 

[aliensporebomb]

Ah!

There's a java plug-in reader we use for a database at work that will make this nice to have - the current one was always kind of ... not quite there IMO.

There's a couple of other things that will be useful for this so no problem.

 

[bbeagle]

Mac OS was low on the list? Did all of the cellphones and washing machines that have Java also stay at SE 6?

Yes - unless they were running Linux or Windows.

 

[goosnarrggh]

Well, when I try to install it:
Image
Image

Alter the package so it installs in 10.6.x anyway?

Is the 10.6.x machine a 32-bit CPU (Core Solo or Core Duo)?
If so, then it's a non-starter. The package cannot be modified to install on your machine because it only contains code compiled for the 64-bit instruction set.

If it's a 64-bit CPU (Core 2 Duo or Xeon or Core iN), then there might be some potential for hacking to get it working - but I have no idea where you'd begin.

On the other hand, if it has a 64-bit CPU, why didn't you upgrade to Lion and/or Mountain Lion? Lion can run on every Mac with a 64-bit CPU, and it still receives vendor support.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Absolutely not...and don't intend to. 🙄

Still, that's an ordinary end user case scenario.

Only a very few Minecraft server plugins need Java 7. Minecraft itself does not. I find it horrifying that Minecraft is made in Java, and it's terribly slow and buggy.

Minecraft client does, though. I too find their inclination to use Java regrettable but as I do not play it that often, it isn't that much of a big deal for me.

No, I enjoy the company of women... 😛

Pshh, women are so overrated - multicolored blocks are not 😛

 

[q64ceo]

Java needs to die.

It is a horrible, horrible platform that is highly inefficient.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Java.com tells me to download from Apple.. so WTF? 😕

Well, when I try to install it:
Image
Image

Alter the package so it installs in 10.6.x anyway?

I am running OSX 10.8
Pardon the dumb questions.
I downloaded and installed the JRE 7 from the above site.
When I open the >Utilities>Java Preferences.app it only shows Java SE 6 installed.

Have I done something wrong?

Keep checking the OS X Software Update [ >Software Update]. Apple always releases their own versions of Java, with good reason.

 

[Undecided]

Java needs to die.

It is a horrible, horrible platform that is highly inefficient.

So what happened? Where did it go wrong?

At the outset it showed such promise - write once, run everywhere.